It wasn't just the infantry who chased the Dutch all the way to the docks, and the few mules and horses in the town were improvised to tow a few light artillery pieces from the militia. , although the speed of the animal-powered self-propelled guns was relatively slow, but it still caught up with the last wave and fired a few rounds at the Dutch sailing boats that were hurrying away from the dock. However, the damage that small-caliber artillery can inflict on the hull of a sailing ship is extremely limited, and the deterrent effect is far greater than the actual results.

However, the pursuit was not in vain, and most of the various supplies and equipment that the Dutch had unloaded from the ship the day before had not had time to take away in a panic when they fled, and formed a hill on the shore. In addition, dozens of Dutch mercenaries and sailors failed to evacuate to the ship in time at the last moment, and were helplessly taken prisoner by the militia army.

Since there were no large ships on the island of Ambuna that could be used for warfare, Mushaber could only watch helplessly as the Dutch fleet left the port at a very slow pace. Thankfully, regardless of whether the fleet chose to return south or north to the port of Dayuan, Taiwan, Mu Shabai was certain that they would not return anytime soon, and the garrison was able to have some time to recuperate and make some adjustments to their local defensive strategies based on the state of the engagement.

Due to the relatively large area of the battle, and the inventory of the results after the war, it was also troublesome, and Mushabai mobilized hundreds of men and took a day and a night to complete.

Although the course of this battle lasted only two days and one night, the intensity of the battle was indeed rare in recent times, with more than 600 rounds fired from artillery alone, and the amount of gunpowder used exceeded 2,000 catties. Including the militia who had been temporarily conscripted, there were more than 600 men on the Haihan side, a figure that had already greatly surpassed that of the Dutch, but the opponents had always believed that the weapons were at a disadvantage and that they realized at the last moment that they were also at a disadvantage in terms of troops.

In this battle, the Haihan side lost 18 casualties and wounded 22 people, which can be regarded as the heaviest casualty in the foreign military operations of the Haihan in the past two years. Sixteen of them were killed in the battle for the harbor fort on the first day, and a large part of this responsibility was actually attributed to the defensive strategy formulated by the military in the early stage. However, fortunately, Mushabai's ability to respond on the spot was not bad, and he adjusted his combat strategy in time, so that all the fighters on the front line of the port retreated, and chose a more favorable defensive position to engage the opponent head-on. And this change also made Haihan turn passive into active in one fell swoop, and reaped good results in the next battle.

According to post-war statistics, the Dutch side had 177 dead in this two-day encounter**, and this figure is only the number of corpses counted in the cleaning of the battlefield, not counting the missing people who may have sunk into the sea with the damaged sailboat on the first day of the engagement, and the corpses like Brouwer's were also carried away, the actual number of deaths is certainly higher than this statistic. Mushaber believes that the actual losses of the Dutch were at least 200 or more, and that the number of wounded who could not be treated in a timely and effective manner would probably have been lost.

Sixty-eight men were captured alive, but only three of them were genuine Dutch, and the rest were all hired to join the East India Company's multinational forces. After a brief screening and determination that there were no worthy targets among the group, Mushabai ordered them all to be taken into custody until the next ship that came to deliver supplies would bring them back to the mainland.

The Dutch came with nine large ships, but when they retreated, only five were able to leave unharmed. Both troop carriers were damaged in the battle and had lost their ability to sail, while the other two merchant ships sank near the shore because they had been used as a shield during the landing battle.

In terms of material seizures, Mushaber was not disappointed, and the most valuable thing was not the stockpile of weapons and ammunition that the Dutch did not have time to take away, but nearly two tons of finished spices. This batch of goods was originally to be transported to Dayuan Port in Taiwan, and then distributed and sold to Daming, Japan, Korea and other places, but because Van Longen's merchant ships were injured because of cover on the first day of engagement, these goods that could not be damp from the ship could only be temporarily stored on the dock.

Mu Xiabai carefully inspected this batch of goods, many of which were in demand in the Northeast Asian market, and the most expensive varieties even sold for hundreds of taels of silver a catty. According to the current market price of spices in the Far East, Mushabai estimated that the market value of this batch of goods was at least 16,000 to 18,000 taels of silver, which could be regarded as enough to subsidize the military consumption of this operation.

In addition, there were quite a lot of weapons and ammunition captured in this battle, including more than 100 arquebuses, 17 artillery pieces that had not yet had time to be put into use from the Dutch sailing ship, more than 40 barrels of gunpowder totaling more than 700 catties, 25 pairs of iron armor, 73 pairs of cowhide armor, and more than 100 spears, knives, and other weapons. Naturally, these things can't get into Mu Xiabai's eyes, but they can be sold to Champa and Siam through middlemen who run errands for Haihan, and it shouldn't be a big problem to get seven or eight thousand taels of silver.

After such calculations, the value of the captured booty must have exceeded the consumption of this operation, but it was also a small gain, and when the military reported the results of the battle to the Executive Committee, the casualty figure would no longer be the most conspicuous column.

For many of those involved, the battle on a small island in the South China Sea may have been a turning point in their lives, but for Sanya, 3,000 miles away, the fierce battle was just a telegram copied on paper. Due to the fact that Haihan did not openly occupy the island of Ambuna, this victory could not be publicized and rewarded for the time being, and even its dissemination was limited to the traversal and a very small number of high-ranking naturalized cadres.

The Military Commission received the news of the end of the fighting on Ambuna Island as soon as possible and immediately informed the Executive Committee of the incident. Although the results of this battle were far less than the battle in Fujian last month when the mission conquered Nanri Island, after all, this was the first time that Haihan had fought against the Netherlands, a formidable enemy, and both the military and the executive committee still attached great importance to the significance of this battle.

Yan Chujie had just finished his duty in the first half of the year, temporarily handed over the affairs of Qiongbei to Wang Tom, and returned to Sanya to report on his work and rest for a few days, but his vacation had been interrupted since he received a report from Ambuna Island on 22 June. Although the garrison on Ambuna Island was not large, it was very important for Haihan's strategy in the South China Sea, and the military sent troops to take control of the area in April in order to be able to control the South China Sea shipping lanes as soon as possible and to interfere with Dutch ships traveling between Taiwan Island and Batavia, so that the Dutch influence in Fujian waters would be further reduced -- this was a move that complemented Haihan's strategic adjustment in Fujian.

The East India Company, known for its simultaneous expansion of trade and military, was definitely not going to sit idly by and watch someone occupy their main supply point on the shipping route from Southeast Asia to Northeast Asia, so when Haihan was determined to take Ambuna Island, he was prepared for the future battle with the Dutch, but he did not expect the Dutch to come back so quickly, and launched a direct attack on Ambuna Island without any tentativeness. In the alarm telegram sent back by Mushabai, it was explained that the first line of coastal defense artillery fortifications had been breached by the other side, and this situation also greatly exceeded the expectations of the military leadership.

When the defense system for Ambuna Island was first designed, the military top brass almost unanimously agreed that the shore defense batteries were the best way to prevent the enemy from attacking from the sea, and this was well verified in many ports of Haihan, as long as the colony with shore fortifications was never breached by the enemy from the sea. At the end of 1628, in the Battle of Wanshan Port, the local garrison used the coastal fortifications to severely damage the Liu Xiang pirate fleet, which was several times its own strength, which was the most typical and successful example of the coastal defense battery tactics so far, and even the subsequent Shengli Port Military Academy course also regarded it as a guideline.

But the unfavorable situation on the island of Ambuna clearly broke this mindset, and the Dutch were unreasonable and hard-hitting, while the island's batteries failed to effectively stop the enemy's landing before the enemy fleet landed. Of course, this has nothing to do with the simplicity of the fortifications on the island, the number of garrisons, combat strategies, and so on, but a defeat is a failure, and the military has not shirked this.

However, the temporary defeat did not cause panic, for according to the telegram sent back by Mushabai, the enemy had only nine sailing ships, most of them merchant ships, and a thousand men were available at full strength. Haihan began to prepare for war on the island two months in advance, and built several lines of defense, if Mu Shabai can't even carry this little force, then don't lead troops outside, and call him back as soon as possible to do internal service.

Sure enough, the battle ended the next day with a victory for the Haihan side, and the Dutch abandoned their armor and fled from the island of Ambuna, knowing that they were unlikely to launch a new offensive anytime soon, giving the defenders of the island time to recuperate. But the military did not let up on the news, and how to strengthen the island's garrison to defend against the next comeback of the Dutch became the central topic of the meeting.

"Our forces on Ambuna Island are sufficient for the time being, but it is clear that the means of defense are far from meeting the operational requirements of frontal resistance to an attack from the sea. After talking about the situation of the war, Wang Tom began to introduce the topic to the summary of the experience after the war: "If the Dutch double their forces next time they attack the island, it will be even more impossible for us to stop their landing in the first place." ”

"Even if we double our troops, our troops on the island will still be able to defeat them, won't they? I remember the plan made by the military before the attack on Ambuna in April, which explicitly promised that the island would be able to resist an enemy force of 2,000 men without increasing the number of troops. Gu Kai responded: "But does it mean now that Anbuna Island is about to be undefended?"

"There was nothing wrong with what we said at the time, and the troops stationed on the island were capable enough to defeat the invading enemy forces. "But beating our opponents doesn't mean we don't have any problems defending the island. As everyone knows, there are no special products on the island of Ambuna, and there are no products that can be used for military purposes, and all the combat supplies of the troops stationed on the island have to be transported from outside the island, that is, from the port of Annam. The naval superiority of the Dutch in the South China Sea is obvious, and if they want to impose a blockade on the waters near Ambuna Island, it will be difficult for our troops stationed on the island to maintain their due combat effectiveness for a long time. ”

"But the cost of blockading a sea area is quite high, isn't it? besides, we also have a navy, and if they want to blockade the island of Ambuna, then we can send a fleet to repel them at that time. Gu Kai retorted.

"That's true, but you've forgotten one thing. Wang Tom reminded: "The distance from Batavia to Ambuna Island is about 600 nautical miles, and the main force of our navy is on Hainan Island, the distance from Sanya to Ambuna Island is half of the distance than the opponent, and the local port environment of Ambuna Island is limited, and there is no way to station a large fleet for a long time, which is why we have only arranged two naval combat ships to be stationed there before this." And once the ship is damaged, it is likely that it will have to return to Cam Ranh Bay in Annam, as it did this time, or even return to the base camp to repair it. The Dutch had a similar problem, but their solution was easier than ours, because they had much more ships than we had, which was a disadvantage that we could not catch up with in the short term. We can fight them, but it will be difficult to achieve a decisive victory in a naval battle like we did against Liu Xiang. ”

"Then what is the military's way of thinking to solve this problem?" Tao Donglai did not let Gu Kai continue to entangle with Wang Tom, and took the initiative to lead the topic back to the right path.

"The opinion of the military is that the local armament strength should be appropriately strengthened on the existing basis, and in addition to the reserves of ammunition and war materials, it is hoped that the Ministry of Construction will assist in sending engineering and technical personnel to the local area to assist in the construction and strengthening of local fortifications. Wang Tom paused, then said: "In other words, we need to change our previous thinking and do a good job of turning Ambuna Island into a frontier position for a long-term battle with the Netherlands." ”

In the original expectation of the military, it was believed that the Dutch would not attach too much importance to Ambuna Island, and even if they found that it was occupied by a group of armed forces suspected of piracy, they would not take large-scale action, at most once or twice, and if they could not fight, they would naturally temporarily abandon this place of little strategic value, but the actual situation was obviously quite different from the forecast.